


sharp teeth underneath my coat

by Windmire



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/F, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 08:53:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18518101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windmire/pseuds/Windmire
Summary: It's been two years since the demon took up residence in the forest just outside the city. Two years since everyone who wandered too far into the forest never came back out again.And two years since Miki refused to change her routine, demon or no demon.Miko's missing. And a demon's taken up residence outside the city.





	sharp teeth underneath my coat

**Author's Note:**

> IIIII... started this very early last year and only just finished it. Oops.
> 
> This was kind of a writing style experiment for me, I guess, so here goes!
> 
> And if you're into knowing that kind of thing, [this](https://youtu.be/CghQKrk0hWM) was basically the only song I listened to while writing this.

It's been two years since the demon took up residence in the forest just outside the city. Two years since everyone who wandered too far into the forest never came back out again.

And two years since Miki refused to change her routine, demon or no demon.

Akira used to beg her not to go, or to at least make sure, extra extra sure to stay on the safe path people had eked out on it, where the demon never seemed to go. Her mom still gives her the sad eyes every time, her dad as well, but she's an adult now, they say. And they've tried so hard and for so long for her to take more care, only to get a breezy smile in response. She knows she'll be fine, after all.

Taro's the only one who doesn't seem to mind. He just asks her if she's seen any demons, eyes alight with interest. And every time she only smiles, winks at him, and jokes that she couldn't tell him if she had.

At least Akira seems to have stopped worrying, or at least stopped worrying quite so much, lately. But, then again, everything's been a little weird with him lately, hasn't it? Miki can't quite put her finger on it, but ever since his friend Ryo showed up, he's been... different. Louder, faster, she doesn't know. It's almost like he takes up more space, enough so that she looks at him and she suddenly can't remember if he's always looked like that. He seems happy, but it's... strange. So strange.

Whatever is happening though, she's sure he'll mention it if something happens. And for the moment, she goes on with her usual routine.

The truth is that, after running each afternoon, her feet still seem to gravitate to the forest, cutting a winding path through the forest as she cools down.

There's something she needs to find out anyway and she'll get nowhere on that if she changes her routine.

Miki pulls her jacket more snugly around herself, frowning up at the tree beside her. She's on the stone path, right smack in the center of it, and it's not the first time she hears sounds while on it--soft, vague sounds, nothing she can quite make out clearly, but that she figures wouldn't be out of place in any forest--but there's something different about them this time.

She frowns just as it finally clicks in her head. They're _louder_ this time. They've never been this loud.

Skittering feet, a loud clicking sound, and something, _something_ dragging across the ground. She breathes deep, willing her heartbeat to slow.

She's not scared. There's nothing to be scared of. Demon or no, she's not scared.

In the gloom beyond the thick trees lining the path, there's a flicker of movement, and all the sound stops. The wind blows and she could swear _something_ is staring at her from the trees. Something's taking notice of her.

Miki can't make anything out in the dark, but she stares right back, her breath catching in her chest.

Then the sound starts up again, another flicker of movement, and the loud, loud, loud skittering feet are back. And she can just tell they're moving away, deeper and deeper into the forest.

Without thinking, Miki surges forward, one arm stretched out in front of her, and calls out, "Wait! Where are you going?"

The feet stop and her eyes finally adjust to the gloom enough to see a large dark shape between the trees. The demon, she realizes almost hysterically. It has to be a demon. It's too big to be a regular animal. And far, far too big to be a human.

There's a clicking sound and she's about to take another step, just one more, when she looks down at her feet.

Half her shoe is off the path, on the dirt and undergrowth. Out of safety. _Out where it's not safe_ , her mind practically screams at her, sounding not so much like her as her mother, as her father, as Akira.

She takes in a sharp breath, and scrambles backwards.

The demon's still for another moment, then in a flurry of movement, it's gone.

Miki can only stare after where the demon's gone, her jaw dropped, her arm still outstretched.

What was she even going to do?

She leans forward, resting her hands on her knees, and takes several long deep breaths.

Later, after she can breathe again, after the forest is almost quiet, she still finishes her circuit around the path anyway, even though her hands shake for the first minutes. And even though she keeps glancing off to the trees beyond the path, realizing she's almost, almost hoping for another glance at that demon.

-

Every day for the next week, she walks right at the edge of the path. She doesn't even realize she's doing it at first, until the sleeve of her jacket gets caught in a branch on the fifth day. It's after she's gotten it freed, when she's frowning down at the small rip at the end of her sleeve, that her gaze slides off her jacket and down to her shoes. Right at the very, very edge of the path. A centimeter more and her shoes would be touching the undergrowth.

She takes a step further into the path, further into safety. Then, deliberately, takes one right back to the edge.

It's still safe right at the edge, isn't it? The demon didn't come after her last time, even when she was beginning to step off the path. It hasn't even shown itself for the past five days.

She screws her eyes shut. "I'm not scared," she whispers to herself, squaring her shoulders. She's not. She can't be.

For the rest of the week, she does the same. And the week after. But there's no sign of the demon again. No sounds other than the usual, no shadows moving within the forest, just the usual birds and insects.

Miki can't quite tell why she's disappointed.

-

It's a month after Miki sees the demon that she feels eyes on her again. She doesn't stop walking this time, but she turns her head, just as the sound of many feet skittering across the undergrowth begins to reach her ears.

She walks past one, two, three, four trees before her eyes make out a shape in the dark, steadily moving closer and closer to her.

Another tree, and another, and Miki stops and turns fully to face the trees. The shape stops, just barely visible between the branches of two trees.

Miki licks her lips. "You're back." She's proud of herself when her voice doesn't shake.

The demon doesn't seem to react.

Miki holds her head higher. She won't run. She's perfectly safe. "I wondered why you didn't come back again," she tries again. "Were you still here the whole time?"

The shadow shifts, just slightly.

"Or were you wherever you take the people you capture?" She can't keep the edge out of her voice this time, her hands clenching at her sides.

There's a clicking sound then, and a laugh. A laugh, the demon is _laughing_. The sound is distorted, almost like the demon's form just wasn't meant to make that sound, but it's definitely a laugh.

And Miki's at a loss.

Before she can say anything else, a voice drifts out from the direction of the shadow--rough and just as distorted, but strangely like... a woman's voice?--the laughter petering out into soft chuckles. "Is that why you keep coming here? Did you lose someone?"

Miki doesn't answer the question, only glares up at the shadow.

"What do you want?" the demon says, and nothing about that voice sounds amused anymore. "Are you that eager to die?"

"No."

Another clicking sound. "Then why do you keep coming here?"

"Because I'm not scared of you," she says firmly. "So I didn't have to stop coming here."

The demon laughs again. "You _should_ be scared of me! Do you know what I can do to you? What I've done to all the other humans that came here?" The shadow shifts and, suddenly, isn't as close to the edge of the path anymore. "Come here," she says. "You're not scared, right?"

Miki narrows her eyes. She's not afraid. But she's not stupid either. And she made a promise to her family. "What are you going to do if I go?"

"Maybe nothing." She makes that clicking sound again. "Maybe I'll show you why you humans should be afraid of me!"

"No."

" _No_?"

"Not this time," she says, heart in her throat, and turns to keep walking.

The sound of branches snapping and a bitten off, frustrated snarl reach her ears as she walks away.

But Miki doesn't look back.

-

She made a promise to her family. They begged and pleaded and she _promised_. She promised she wouldn't step off the path, she promised she wouldn't end up like all the others.

But every day for the next week, the demon follows her from the other side of the line of trees, silent save for the sound of her feet and the occasional click.

But Miki feels the demon's eyes on her the whole time, even before she catches sight of her, and after she disappears from her sight. She's certain, but can't explain why, that the demon is glaring at her the whole time, just waiting for Miki to give in and follow her deeper into the trees. But Miki very deliberately doesn't look at the demon, doesn't speak, doesn't even acknowledge her.

Not yet.

She doesn't tell even Taro about any of it. Not yet.

And if she has to clench her hands inside her jacket pockets sometimes, hard enough to leave crescent shaped marks on the palms of her hands, as she wills herself not to break and follow the demon... She's especially not mentioning that to Taro, much less any of her friends or family.

But on the seventh day, the demon speaks to her again.

"What do you _want_?" she asks, sounding more frustrated than anything.

"It doesn't matter."

The demon scoffs, and it sounds even stranger than her laugh. " _Please_. I know. Who are you trying to avenge? One of your friends?"

Miki doesn't answer.

"I won't hurt you," the demon says suddenly, reluctantly. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Do you mean it?" Miki doesn't look at the shadow as she speaks.

The demon grunts. "Probably. You probably wouldn't even scream if I tried to eat you. What's the point?"

Strangely enough, Miki finds she believes her. "What are you going to do if I follow you?"

"Nothing."

Miki keeps her eyes on her shoes to hide her surprise and only nods. "Meet me tomorrow at the edge of the forest," she says softly, her words surprising even herself. But she doesn't take the words back.

She made a promise. But maybe there's another promise she should finally remember, one to herself.

The demon doesn't answer, just makes that strange clicking sound again, but when Miki looks up, the shadow's gone.

-

Miki enters the forest at her usual time the next day and isn't surprised when she immediately sees the shadow waiting for her.

And she doesn't think about it. She just closes her eyes and takes a step forward, and another, and another, until her shoes slide right off the stone path, and onto the dirt and leaves.

She holds still for a moment, half-expecting claws or teeth or pincers to squeeze into her. But when she opens her eyes, she finds only the demon, still half in shadow, standing in front of her, as if examining her.

Then the demon moves without a word, away from Miki, and makes its way further into the trees.

In for a penny, in for a pound, then.

Miki follows with careful steps, zipping her jacket up to her chin when the air only grows colder the deeper they go into the forest.

Eventually, but before Miki's anywhere even near tired, they stop at a clearing, a patch of light right in the center, and the demon turns to face her.

Miki can't help the gasp that escapes her.

She's a spider. Big and shiny, but a spider nonetheless, and she finally understands that clicking she kept hearing.

But it's not the fact the demon's a spider that wrenches a gasp for her, has her staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

The demon's head is almost human. The eyes aren't, the fangs aren't, but she's almost, almost got herself a human head there and. Is that what demons are supposed to look like?

The demon laughs. "I thought you weren't scared," she says, mocking. "Maybe I should eat you, after all."

Miki blinks and snaps her mouth shut. "I'm not scared," she says steadily. "You don't look how I expected."

"What's that mean?"

Miki only shakes her head.

A scoff. "You've seen me now. You're alive. Now what do you want with me?"

Her hands clenching into fists at her side, Miki scowls. "My friend came here," she says, for the first time. "I want to know what you did to her."

"Oh?" The demon sounds amused again, even looks it now, strangely. "What'd your friend look like? What was her name?"

She highly doubts the demon sits down to tea with anyone that visits before eating them, but it won't hurt to answer the question.

"Miko..." She clears her throat, her heart twisting in her chest. "Kuroda Miki."

And Miki has to close her eyes for a moment.

Miko was the first victim of the demon. It was only a month since the last time anyone saw her that people started realizing what lurked in the forest. Their last year of high school and, one afternoon, Miko had wandered off and never come back.

And Miki... Miki misses her, honestly. They were friends, of a sort, she thinks. Miko was never very talkative, always skittish, but they were on the track team together. They had been running together, along with Akira, ever since they were children and Miki liked to think that gave them some sort of... connection, maybe? She doesn't know.

But it hurt so much more than she expected when Miko disappeared.

"You killed her," Miki says weakly.

She opens her eyes just in time to see the demon burst into laughter again.

"Long hair? Ran fast? Looked kind of like an idiot?" She laughs harder. "What do you care about her? She was pathetic."

"She wasn't. I need to know what you did to her."

"Little Kuroda Miki, always second best to you," the demon says viciously. "And now you care about her. Now you want to know what I did to her. No."

"Please."

"No."

"What did you to _do_ to her?!" Miki blurts out, chest heaving. She can't do this. She can't. "Did you kill her? Did you eat her?"

The demon's tone turns straight out malicious. "I did worse to her than that. And you know what? She deserved it."

"What did you do?" she whispers. "What did you do to her?!"

" _What she deserved_." With another laugh that sounds more like a sob this time, the demon lowers her head. "Look at me, Makimura Miki. Look at me and maybe you'll figure it out."

Miki starts. Her name. The demon knows her name. But she screws up her face and steps closer, close enough to set her hands on the sides of the demon's face, her rough skin.

And she lets her.

Barely even daring to breathe, Miki looks closely at the demon's face, at her eyes, and she sees nothing. She sees only a spider, a demon, a face that's almost human.

But there's something about the eyes, something in the shape of them, in the way they stare back at her steadily, that...

With a jolt, Miki realizes just what the demon meant.

And, for just a moment, she wants nothing more than to cry.

" _Miko_ ," she gasps out and she doesn't dare close her eyes, no matter how much they sting. "Miko, how?!"

The demon-- _Miko_ \--tears her face away from Miki's hands, her features twisting into a snarl. "Now do you understand, Miki? It's me! It was always me! I've been killing all the people who come here." She skitters backwards, fangs clicking. "Do you want to know exactly what I did to each of them? Exactly what I thought of doing to _you_?"

Miki shakes her head slowly. "Why? How did this happen, Miko?"

"MIKI," Miko all but shrieks. "My name was Miki! You stole it from me and then I was Miko! Just for that, I should do to you what I did to all the others!"

"Miki," she tries.

" _No. Don't call me that_! I'm not Miki. I'm not Miko, I'm the goddamn demon in the forest!" She snarls. "What's wrong, Miki? Isn't this what you wanted to know?" She laughs again. "Miko wandered in here and a demon possessed her. The demon wasn't strong enough to take over her. But she wasn't strong enough either! Now I'm stuck like this!"

"I can help," Miki says quickly, unthinkingly. "There has to be a way to help you, so you can turn back and--" 

"And kill people in a different way?" Miko's voice is low now, mocking. "I still killed them all, Miki. Because I wanted to."

"You don't have to."

"Yes, I do! It's the only thing I can do!"

"You can come back," Miki pleads.

"Like this? Don't make me laugh."

Miki grits her teeth, hands clenched into fists. She doesn't have an answer for that.

"You can't seriously fucking tell me you were in here looking for _Miko_ all this time," she spits out the name mockingly, in a way that only has Miki's fists clenching even tighter.

"I wanted to know what happened. You were my friend, so of course I--"

"You friend?" Miko laughs again, that strange, unsettling sound. " _Your friend?!_ Don't be stupid. I hate you, I always hated you!"

Miki's shoulders slump. "I know."

"Then get lost!" she all but shrieks. "I don't want to see you again!"

It's quick as anything. Miko's there one moment, then with the sound of skittering feet and a surprising speed, she's gone, leaving Miki alone in the clearing.

With only half a clue how to get back.

She swallows.

She doesn't get home until after nightfall that day.

-

Miki comes back, of course she does. But there's no shadow tailing her this time, no sounds of skittering feet or pincers.

She keeps coming anyway, day after silent day.

There's no other choice. She needs to see Miko again.

It's one evening, when she's back home and heading to her room that she hears it.

Mumblings from her parents, from Taro, from the television, about _tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow_.

Someone else has been taken.

Someone else has been eaten.

( _Who, who, who did Miko take?_ )

It's been enough.

It's been too much.

So tomorrow.

Tomorrow. A group of people to look for the demons in the forest.

To deal with the demons in the forest.

Miki's blood runs cold.

They won't find Miko... Surely... They won't find Miko.

Miki tells herself that, again and again as she lies in her bed, sleep more elusive than it's ever been. But by the time dawn breaks, and she hasn't slept a wink, she hasn't been able to even remotely convince herself of that. While no one else is up yet, she slips out of bed and pauses only long enough to change before she's out of the house, back toward the forest.

She needs to find Miko.

She has to.

Most of the way down her usual path to the forest, Miki freezes, catching sight of the first signs of a gathering crowd.

No.

No, no, no.

Heart in her throat, Miki circles the long way around them, trampling right into the undergrowth of the forest instead of stepping onto the path, where they could see her.

It's fine. This is fine.

Her priority right now is finding Miko. If she's going to keep avoiding her, then Miki will have to get off the path and look for her anyway.

She's not afraid.

Especially not now.

Her hands shake, but it's with her head held high that she crosses the forest blindly, every twig her shoes snap sounding far, far too loud to her ears.

But that's fine. The more noise she makes, the faster Miko will find her.

The faster she'll know what happened. And the faster she'll be able to help her.

(She has to be able to help her. She has to.)

She doesn't know for how long she wanders, the forest entirely too silent for her liking, the sun creeping higher and higher in the sky, until she finally stops in another clearing, her lips pressed together tightly.

Not even a single sign of Miko. Even the only bits of trampled undergrowth she's seen have been caused by her own shoes.

What's she supposed to do?

Miki takes in a deep breath, closing her eyes. 

_Miko, Miko, where are you..._

"Miko," she says out loud, then in a louder voice, "Miko! I know you're here!"

Silence is her only answer.

"Miko, please! It's okay if you hate me! I just need to talk to you! Miko..." Her voice falters. No. No, she can't...

She clears her throat. "Please... Miko..."

That does the trick.

Softly, as if from a distance, the sounds of movement begin to drift toward Miki--the sounds of very _in_ human movement.

Her breath hitches and she barely even dares twitch, until the large, lumbering shape of the spider Miki has become comes into view.

Only then does Miki dare to take a full breath, to step forward to meet her halfway. "Miko!" she blurts out, barely even thinking. "They're here! They're all here for you!"

Miko scoffs. "I know. I'm the goddamn demon of the forest, of course they are! Why the hell are _you_ here? I told you to get lost!"

"I can't just let them kill you!"

"Who says they'd be the ones doing the killing? Didn't you hear? I ate someone else!"

Miki flinches, but holds her ground, looking up at her with her shoulders set. "Did you? Why?"

"He got in my way," Miko says simply.

"But why?! You left me alone every time I was here!"

"Because that was a mistake! You forgot who and _what_ I am! This is what I am right now, Miki! A monster who eats people! And you just. Don't. Get. It."

No. No. Miki shakes her head. "But you don't have to be! You can stop this. It doesn't have to go on. Please, I know it's been hard. But you can stop!"

"And then what? I become your tame demon pet? I don't fucking think so, Makimura! Don't you get what I've done to all those people?"

She does. She does get it. More than she wants to.

People are dead. People are dead and she doesn't know what to do about that. She just wants to keep Miko from becoming one of the dead.

Worst of all, she just wants to help Miko. She just wants it to stop. If she can just find a way to stop Miko, to help her somehow...

Miko was the first victim of the demon, after all.

"We can stop this," is all she says, stepping forward, stretching out her arms to reach out slowly toward Miko. "If you just let me help you. We'll figure something out. We can find out how you can fight back against the demon!"

Miko doesn't pull back. "The demon's part of me now. That can't change!"

"But you can take control! Can't you do that?"

Miko lets out a choked off scream, but doesn't pull away when Miki's hands touch her face either. "Don't you think I've tried?!"

"Try again!" Miki says, standing on her tiptoes to press her forehead to Miko. "Please."

"I hate you," she snarls, but there's an edge to it now, a hitch to her breath. "I _hate_ you."

"I know," Miki says. And she knows, she knows surer than she's ever known anything else, that's not the end of it.

"I hate you." Miko's voice breaks, the skin under Miki's hands growing warmer somehow. In a way that doesn't entirely feel natural. "But I _love_ you..."

Miki smiles, lifting her head to press her lips to the rough skin of Miko's cheek.

"I know."

There's a new, sudden warmth in her chest, matching the one radiating from Miko's skin.

And later, later, later, when she helps another girl off the ground--Miko, but not the Miko she knew before, not quite, never quite the same again, especially not with how much she has to figure out now--after the clearing has grown dark again, after the crowd has entered and left the forest, completely bypassing the girl with the spider that ever so slowly continued shrinking throughout the day, snarling and hissing...

It's a similar warmth she'll feel where her hand holds Miko's and leads her away.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ♥
> 
> [Tumblr](http://bleakeisland.tumblr.com)   
>  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bleakeisland)


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